I just woke up and was reading this thread. It reads like Scott Smith Against the World. The poor guy is only seen once a year. Last year he showed he can make 4 rotations on a quad sal. Good for him. He also has a number of jumps in good shape. His spins are not wow spins but they are passable. His coaches gave him a decent routine and he looked competitive out there at Nats.
I conclude that there was much improvement over past Nats.

I agree with the comments on the Quad as a determining factor in scores. The Quad Rules!!!

Without Tim and Mike, we are looking for a third man to fill the podium. If not Scott, WHO?

Even though Kimmie is World Champ had great showing at Olymics for her first time, IMO not yet.
Well summers almost over and can't wait till the season starts up, too bad I didn't live little bit closer to Cimcinnati sounds like it going to be a great event.

It would be interesting to see this year if Smith does a performance landing a clean quads at U.S Nationals but has 3 major errors, and Weir or Lysacek do clean performances with no quads if they score around the same. At the Olympics I remember Lambiel making three major errors, but landing a clean quad, and getting almost exactly the same score as Lysacek with a clean performance. I find Smith and Lambiel's style of skating very similar, they both skate with a happy face, and do alot of the same type of skating I find. So I would be interesting to see if they judge him the same way in the same situations.

Then again chuck says they did not judge Smith that way at Nationals last year, or even Four Continents so maybe they would not judge him the same way they do Lambiel. I just find their skating style and movements on ice similar.

Men: Weir, Lysacek, (Savoie and Weiss have retired), Smith (Ryan Jahnke is next. He is another skater, like Smith, who has always been kind of on the bubble -- not bad, but not quite ready for the big show.)

Pairs: Nam and Lefteris were fifth, but the three teams ahead of them retired.

Dance: #1 and #2.

Going by the same formula, we should get Fumie and Mao, with Yoshie Onda ahead of Yukari Nakano (Arakawa having moved on). I wonder if the Japanese and Canadian Federations will do the picking, or if USFS and Campbell's will just invite who they want.

Men: Weir, Lysacek, (Savoie and Weiss have retired), Smith (Ryan Jahnke is next. He is another skater, like Smith, who has always been kind of on the bubble -- not bad, but not quite ready for the big show.)

Jahnke has not officially retired but is not competing this season (he competed at one Worlds in 2003 and I'm glad he got to one "big show" at least -- IMO, he's one of the best "not bad" (i.e., quality all-around) skaters I've ever seen! ). Goebel (7th at '06 Nationals) has officially retired, which should put Ryan Bradley next in line (that's why Bradley got Skate America).

I wonder if the Japanese and Canadian Federations will do the picking, or if USFS and Campbell's will just invite who they want.

Skate Canada "accidently" published the names of Val&#233;rie Marcoux / Craig Buntin and Jessica Dub&#233; / Bryce Davison (pairs) and Marie-France Dubreuil / Patrice Lauzon and Tessa Virtue / Scott Moir (dance) last week and later removed them... we'll have to wait and see if these teams are the ones that show up in Cincinnati.

At the Olympics I remember Lambiel making three major errors, but landing a clean quad, and getting almost exactly the same score as Lysacek with a clean performance.

It's all in the numbers. Lambiel landed two quads in his Olympic LP, one in a three-jump combination. His 4T+3T+2Lo gave him 15.5 points on that one jumping pass.

This made up for not being able to do a triple Axel (Lysacek did two, one in combination) and falling on his Lutz (Lysacek earned 11.0 points for his opening 3Lz/3T).

No matter how I massage the numbers, I just can't see Scott coming up with a 150 point LP. His all-time highest is 125.51 -- and this was in the 2003 experimental season, when the CoP was brand new and all the scores were way over-inflated. If fact, Sasha Cohen got 130.89 in her LP in the same event as Scott's best.

No matter how I massage the numbers, I just can't see Scott coming up with a 150 point LP. His all-time highest is 125.51 -- and this was in the 2003 experimental season, when the CoP was brand new and all the scores were way over-inflated. If fact, Sasha Cohen got 130.89 in her LP in the same event as Scott's best.

Actually, Scott Smith's highest recorded IJS score was 206.55 at the Ondrej Nepela Memorial in Slovakia in Sept. 2006, but this Senior B event did not qualify for the ISU's "personal best scores" list. Smith scored 70.85 in the SP and 135.7 in the FS (jumps landed include a 4S, 3A-2T, 3A) to win the event by over 20 points over Kevin van der Perren. Smith's best skated performances last season were at the Liberty summer competition and Nepela, not at 2006 U.S. Nationals or Four Continents.

Actually, Scott Smith's highest recorded IJS score was 206.55 at the Ondrej Nepela Memorial in Slovakia in Sept. 2006, but this Senior B event did not qualify for the ISU's "personal best scores" list. Smith scored 70.85 in the SP and 135.7 in the FS (jumps landed include a 4S, 3A-2T, 3A) to win the event by over 20 points over Kevin van der Perren. Smith's best skated performances last season were at the Liberty summer competition and Nepela, not at 2006 U.S. Nationals or Four Continents.

To put this in context, although the judging was different at Nepala, Matthew Savoie's score for his Olympics SP was 69.15, his LP score personal best (under the current scale of values) for an LP until the Olympics was 120.38, with his Olympics LP scored at 137.52.

Of course, it's impossible to say whether the Nepala judges overscored, or whether the Olympics judges underscored, or both.

In the SP, Scott's jumps were all landed but he got -GOE, and -GOE on his combination spn as well. A clean SP would have given him an extra 4.51 points, for a SP total of 66.35 (4th place in the SP, behind 3 quadless men).

In the FS, he had two major errors: he did only a 2S instead of his 4S, and he doubled his lutz. If he had landed the quad and the 3Z, he would have added 10.11 points to his score, for a FS total of 133.52 points and a grand total of 199.87---enough to place him 1st in the FS, but 2nd overall behind Oda, who had many errrors in his FS.

If Scott can't break the 200 mark in total points with two clean programs, he can't beat Lysacek and Weir unless they both crumble completely. Weir skated with an injury at Worlds 2006 and still scored a SP/FS total of over 202. Lysacek had a flawed SP, but scored 220 points.

The only way for Smith to be a big winner is total clean skating plus a massive charisma infusion. The way he skates now, his PCS scores will hold him back.

Am I the only one who finds Scott Smith and Lambiel have a similar skating style? I dont see why if he lands the same jumps they would not be scored similar since they have a similar style. I admit to being more new to figure skating though, and I am still learning. I just find they look like they skate in a similar way.

On this note, what do folks think of Jeremy Abbott (who has done a quad salchow in competition)? I don't remember where I heard of him, but I am so impressed by the photos on his website - he just looks to have such good line and confidence - the "it" factor.

Am I the only one who finds Scott Smith and Lambiel have a similar skating style?

From those who have weighed in on this comparison of yours so far (including me now), yes. Lambiel's basic skating (stroking with soft/deep knees, edge quality, ice coverage, etc.) is really impressive to see in person (I've only seen him skate once "live" -- at 2003 Worlds), along with his spins of course (except for the camel).

Originally Posted by Spun Silver

On this note, what do folks think of Jeremy Abbott (who has done a quad salchow in competition)?

I don't recall Abbott ever landing a quad in competition? He is practicing quads, though. He's one of my favorite up-and-comers to watch ever since I saw him win the 2005 U.S. junior title in Portland. Abbott has a nice blend of technical and "artistic" abilities, and I'm really hoping this will be a good comeback season for him.